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  Operation: Endgame

  When the Mission Ends Book #1

  by

  Christi Snow

  Published by Christi Snow

  Edited by Sarah Negovetich

  Cover Design by AM Design Studios

  Copyright © 2012 Christina Snow

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, events, or incidences come from the author’s imagination and are not meant to portray real persons or events,

  Texas Tech University and Lubbock, TX are real places, but again, they are used only as setting in this very fictional world. Any similarities are purely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To the boy who inspired this story: my son, Jacob, who spent many afternoons playing in the woods with his wooden Thompson gun and full-on camo gear with all his buds at Pope AFB, NC.

  BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

  When the Mission Ends Trilogy

  Book #1: Operation: Endgame

  September 2012

  Book #2: Operation: Endeavor

  January 2013

  Book #3: Operation: Endurance

  April 2013

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Writing a book is not a solo enterprise and I had lots of amazing advice and feedback along the way.

  First, thank you to my girls who read the very first draft of this and told me that it was worth publishing. Girls, your enthusiasm and support means so incredibly much to me. Thank you to: Amber, Amy, Anso, Kim, Jennifer, Michelle, and Mom.

  To my fellow writers of SAW: You guys know I love you. You’ve already taught me so much and always make me feel good about what I’m writing. Your feedback is invaluable. Thank you especially to the original crew who I met from that first NaNo, 2011, when this book was born…

  Ben, Chrysten, Dave, Lydia, and Nikki

  I had to twist his arm to read it, but once he did I think he was pleasantly surprised…first, that he could enjoy a romance novel and second, that I could write one. Thank you Ben. I love you and appreciate all the nights you ate frozen pizza without complaint.

  Finally, HUGE THANKS go out to editor extraordinaire: Sarah Negovetich! Even when I was cutting out entire chapters from this book, your notes kept me giggling and definitely kept the entire process much more enjoyable than it would have been without you. Your insight was incredible and you absolutely make this a better novel. Thank you for that!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Acknowledgments

  Books In This Series

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Twenty Years Ago

  Jake could feel the bark of the limb cutting into his palm, but he refused to give away his position by changing the way he clung there. The old oak tree provided the perfect place for him to watch his new neighbors. Day three of spying on their war games and he finally understood the strategy behind capturing each other’s flags. Two of them played every day, complete with camouflage, face paint, and wooden machine guns. Every once in a while, their older brother joined them, but he usually stomped off in a huff after the two smaller boys captured him instead of his flag.

  At the age of ten, Jake yearned to join them in their game. Loneliness consumed him after being uprooted from the only friends he’d ever known and dragged across the country to this strange place they called West Texas. He never felt anything as hot as it got here, never seen a place so barren, and never felt so out of his element, before he moved here from the mountains of North Carolina. He felt like he was exploring the wilds of Africa compared to the world he’d known until just a few short weeks ago. Now he spent his time observing the local wildlife in two boys who appeared to be about his age from his perch up in this tree. He wanted to approach them, but didn’t know how. So instead he just sat in his tree and watched all day long.

  He brought along plenty of provisions…water and pb&j. His mother was so caught up in her own issues; she didn’t even notice he was gone all day every day.

  It had been quiet for a while and Jake wondered if the boys had gone in, when he caught sight of one of them sneaking around the tree just to his left. This boy was the smaller of the two although there was no doubt they were brothers. They looked too much alike to be anything else. The boy held his gun at eye level as sweat dripped down the sides of his face leaving trails through his face paint. He wondered how they could stand those heavy camouflage uniforms in the West Texas summer heat. As if sensing his thought, the boy drew a canteen out of his belt and drank. While his attention was diverted, the other boy ran up behind him and leapt on him with a tackle sending both boys rolling through the grass. Their roll took them around behind the tree and Jake lost sight of them. He craned his head under the limb trying to see what happened and lost his balance.

  Jake scrambled to catch a good hold on the limb again, but it was no use. A scream rose out of him as the ground rushed up to meet him and he tumbled onto the drought-hardened ground. The two brothers stopped wrestling to stare at Jake in shock as he rolled over in pain and tried to get his breath back. The larger of the two approached him, but the smaller boy decided this was a good time for retaliation. He pulled his arm back and belted the other one right in the eye. Jake couldn’t help but wince in commiseration. That must have hurt. He eyed the two boys warily wondering if they were going to turn on him next as an enemy within their territory.

  Instead, he was surprised to see the smaller one smile at him and offer him a hand to help him stand. “Hey you’re the kid who moved in next door aren’t you? We’ve been wondering what happened to you.” He looked up at the limb where Jake had been sitting. “What were you doing up there?”

  Jake mumbled, feeling stupid for falling out of the tree. “Just watching. Why’d you hit him?” Jake looked over at the larger of the two who still clutched his eye.

  The smaller boy looked angrily at the larger one and stuck his tongue out at him. “He snuck up and jumped me. That goes against the Geneva Code. You aren’t supposed to jump on someone when you have a gun, so I hit him.”

  The larger boy rolled his one uncovered eye. “You’re so stupid. That’s not the Geneva Code. The Geneva Code says I can’t jump on you if you surrender. I sure didn’t see you surrendering as you slunk around that tree. I was just trying to minimize casualties by jumping you. You s
aw it, didn’t you?” The larger boy looked at Jake. “I was in the right, wasn’t I? I beat her fair and square, didn’t I?”

  Jake glanced between the two boys nervously, not really wanting to choose sides, but the larger one was right. “Yeah, you beat him fair and square.”

  “You liar! He did not.” The smaller boy swung back around and gaped at Jake, looking angry. “Wait, did you just call me a boy?” the boy screeched as he launched himself at Jake who was still sitting on the ground.

  Jake was the bigger of the two so quickly found himself sitting on top of the smaller one, pinning his arms to the ground. His jaw dropped when the boy’s hat fell off and a tumble of long red hair had come falling out of the confines of the hat. “Crap! You’re a girl?!?” and immediately started scrambling back off of her.

  “No duh.” She said as she stood up quickly and started brushing off her pants. She grabbed her hat and shoved her long hair back inside of it. “I’m Cassie. That’s Chris.” She gestured at the larger boy. “He’s a boy, in case you couldn’t tell.” Cassie smirked at her brother, taking in his blackening eye. “We’re twins. What’s your name?”

  “I’m Jake.”

  “Nice to meet you, Jake.” She obviously had manners even though her next few words were said with a sneer. “Since you boys seem to have an issue with girls, you better run because this girl just caught your flag.” She grabbed the flag off the ground and took off running.

  Chris looked at Jake and sighed. “Hi Jake! Welcome to the team. We need to get you some gear.” He looked him up and down and gestured down the street towards the twin’s house. “Then we’ll see what we can do about capturing her cocky butt.” He smiled.

  Jake grinned back at him and decided this move to West Texas wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

  Chapter 1

  20 Years Later

  Cassie switched off the blender, stuck in a straw, and moaned in appreciation. “Yum. I’m officially the Queen of Making Margaritas.” She yelled out into the backyard at her best friends, Julie and Penelope, “Refills coming right up! Those glasses better be empty and in the air ready for more of my fabulously perfect margaritas.”

  Cassie smiled and laughed as she sauntered through the back door, carrying the pitcher of margaritas and her own glass, already topped off. The semester ended the day before at Texas Tech University and they were spending the day lounging by the pool to celebrate the end of another academic year.

  As a military history professor, Cassie would be headed to Europe in two weeks to spend the summer as a guest lecturer. The year before, Cassie acted as a military strategy consultant on a video game, called Endgame. It became a bestseller within three weeks of release and remained there ever since. Cassie’s interview on the video extras made her a celebrity and in high-demand as a guest lecturer. It promised to be a crazy summer, but for now, she was celebrating the freedom from responsibility and drinking accordingly. This was their third pitcher of margaritas and all three of them were pleasantly buzzed.

  They were at Cassie’s cozy little bungalow just a couple of blocks from the campus. She adored this house and had lovingly restored it when she had inherited it from her grandfather, while she was still in college. That restoration included the addition of this oasis she now called her backyard. Chris, Jake, and she had spent two whole summers transforming it, but the work had been worth it. There were terraces filled with mood lighting, easy-to-care-for plants, outdoor speakers, and the piece de resistance….the pool which beckoned all of them in from the West Texas heat.

  Today, it was Julie and Penelope who were beckoning her to come refill their empty glasses. They sat in the shade of the outdoor umbrella which loomed serenely over the café-style bistro tables. They were her best friends, next to Chris and Jake, but the three girls could not have looked and acted more different from each other.

  Julie was the tiniest of the three. She was a physical therapist at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center and also filled in as a physical trainer at the Fitness Center on campus. Her dark black hair was cut into a cute little pixie cut which fit her small frame and many times, she was mistaken for someone in junior high. At least, that was the case until she turned around and said person got a glimpse of her rack which would make any Playboy bunny envious. She was quiet, serious, and they all gave her a hard time about her OCD tendencies.

  Penelope owned the local bookstore and taught yoga at the University Fitness Center. She had wavy honey colored long hair, startling jade green eyes, and a free-spirit attitude which made everyone love her from the very first. She was vivacious and outgoing and didn’t meet anyone who wasn’t an immediate friend. She was also flighty and a bit scatter-brained, but most people just learned that was part of her charm and overlooked the fact. Only her best friends knew that, for the most part, it was an act she used to hide her brilliant mind.

  Cassie was tall, with a thick cascade of auburn hair. She grew up in Lubbock and had the Texas drawl to match. She’d always been a tomboy and very athletic. Now she channeled her athleticism through her running, which was almost like a religion to her. It was how she kept the margaritas from going to her hips, how she sorted through her lesson plans, and worked out the stresses which came from working at a high-stress University system. Also, it kept her fears about all the boys at bay so she could sleep at night.

  They, the boys and her, had all grown up playing those silly neighborhood war games, but those games established a love of the military for all of them, even Colton.

  Colt was her older brother by four years. He went to Texas A&M through the Corps and was a Special Ops officer. He flew combat-ready C-130’s and was a Major stationed at RAF Mildenhall in England.

  Jake, Chris, and Cassie all attended and graduated from Texas Tech. Jake and Chris went the ROTC route with Jake becoming a PJ- Pararescue Jumper for the Air Force. He spent his career as a military paramedic jumping into enemy territory rescuing downed pilots and Spec Ops guys who had run into trouble. Jake had just been selected for Major although he hadn’t been officially pinned on yet.

  Chris was her twin, younger than her by 4 minutes, and a fighter pilot who flew F-22’s. He was a Captain in the Air Force and the consummate flirt of the group.

  Colton was her older brother, Chris was her twin brother, and Jake was their best friend. They all three were in the Air Force and constantly in too much danger for her liking.

  Cassie re-filled their glasses and then flopped down into one of the empty chairs. Julie asked, “Have you heard from any of the boys lately?”

  “Colton called Sunday. He’s doing okay, although I still don’t think he’s dealing well with Dianna’s leaving him.” Cassie’s forehead scrunched up as she considered her older brother’s pending divorce. “Right now, he’s safely ensconced behind a desk playing commander in England. I hate that he lives so far away. I’m looking forward to getting to spend a little bit of time with him over the summer, so I’m hoping the desk duty continues.” She gave a mischievous grin, “No matter how much he hates it.” That grin quickly turned into a scowl as she continued. “He said he didn’t know where Jake and Chris are stationed right now, but he’s lying to me.”

  Penelope looked at her questioningly. “Why do you think he was lying?”

  Cassie shook her head. “I know my brothers too well. I could tell it from his voice. Besides,” she said, her voice cracking, “I’m having nightmares about Chris. Something’s wrong. I know it.”

  Both of her friends suddenly looked worried. As twins, Chris and Cassie always had a unique connection. They simply knew when something was wrong with the other one. Cassie continued, “I’m sure I’ll hear from him soon. He’ll tell me he broke his toe or something and then I’ll feel stupid for getting all worked up about it. But until I hear that, I just don’t have a good feeling.” Her eyes welled with tears at the remembrance of the visions of Chris in her dreams and her voice cracked when she said, “The dreams have been really awful.”

  Su
ddenly, a doorbell rang from inside the house. “Okay, no more unhappy talk. Like I said, I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything. Come on girls, it’s the start of summer. Drink up and I’ll go see if whoever is at the front door wants to join us.” Cassie bounded into the house, while Julie and Penelope shared a look of concern.

  As Cassie ran through the house, she swiped at her eyes, smoothed over the top of her ponytail. A glance down at the very miniscule top of her orange polka-dot bikini and the matching sarong confirmed everything was covered. She wasn’t expecting anyone, but with the semester ending the day before, most of their colleagues knew the girls would be hanging out at the pool celebrating. So it was a huge shock to see Jake standing at her front door in his blues when she opened the door.

  Cassie flung herself into his arms. “Jake? What are you doing here? When did you get back into the States?” She suddenly realized he was standing very stiffly at the same time she spotted the Chaplain and another high ranking officer both in blues standing behind him. Her gasp came out as the only explanation occurred to her. She yanked back from Jake to look into his tear-filled eyes.

  A guttural, “Cassie…” crossed his lips, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

  “No, no, NO!” Cassie was shaking her head viciously back and forth while she tried to escape back into the house, but Jake wouldn’t let go of her hand. This couldn’t be happening. She refused to accept this.